The Importance of Phrasing, Part One

Phrasing seems to be one of those things in worship music that is overlooked. You never really think about it unless it is done poorly. I think it’s because as worship leaders/band members, we do not like to think of our music as performances. Not to say that this is a bad thing, however, we tend to take this to the extreme and forget about the basics of musicianship and needing to play excellently. Just because it’s not a performance, doesn’t mean we don’t play musically or play our best. Poorly done music is very distracting and not worshipful.

Phrasing is what makes music beautiful and powerful. When a preacher is preparing for a sermon, he will carefully consider how to vary his voice in volume and pitch to keep his audience engaged and focused on the message. A monotonous preacher is not engaging and I would argue, ineffective. In the same way, worship leaders should also carefully consider phrasing. It’s a good way to help the congregation understand the organization of a song and the direction which the music is heading. For example, when the band is playing an interlude in a song, the structure of the interlude should be made apparent to the listeners so that they have a good feel for when the next verse or bridge is coming up.

How do we do that?

Yup, you guessed it. It’s about phrasing.

But before we proceed with this discussion, let’s define some of these terms.

1. Phrase: “a musical thought ending with a partial or complete point of rest”
2. Phrasing: how these phrases are performed. Often, but not always, these phrases will come in pairs.
3. Period: two phrases, usually of the same length, forming a complete musical thought These phrases usually form a question/answer relationship in that the second phrase complements the first phrase.
4. Antecedent: the first phrase will have a weaker cadence than the second.
5. Consequent: the second phrase has a stronger cadence and lets the listener know that this is the end of the phrase.

Here’s a simple illustration of an antecedent/consequent phrase from the hymn, Man of Sorrows:

If you take a look, you’ll notice that the structure of both of the phrases are very similar. The melody and harmony of the first phrase feels unfinished until the second phrase answers it. The second phrase ends in the tonic while the first phrase ends in the dominant.

(There are classifications of these periods such as parallel, contrasting, sequential, or inverted.)

In the next post, we’ll talk about how to apply the music theory behind phrasing in worship music.

So, Paul Baloche knows how to play acoustic guitar.

(in a band setting).

“Locking into that bass and drums” pretty much sums it up.

Lessons from the Elevation Worship Tutorials

A few weeks ago, Elevation Worship released studio tutorials of some of their live album songs.  I’m a big fan.  These aren’t your typical tutorials (mostly talking through what to do in each song and what chords or what effects to use)– no, they’re a whole different level of tutorial.  Just videos of the band playing the songs.

That might sound not that great at first, but there are a few reasons why these tutorials are particularly helpful.  The main thing is that you can seamlessly click between the different band members and see what they are doing/playing at any given point in the songs.  Each band-member-focused video has a mix that emphasizes that instrument but still has the full band mix in the background.  In addition, the roman numeral chord notation is displayed in real time, allowing you to see how an instrument (especially important for bass, keys, and electric) operates from chord to chord.

Well, here are some assorted lessons (out of a gazillion things; I could probably watch these all day!) I noted from watching these videos a few times:

• Electric: It’s often what and when you don’t play that is most important.  It emphasizes the times you do play and also creates breathing space for the band.
• Electric: When not playing lead lines, subtle and simple is best.  ”Respect” the vocals.
• Electric: Guitars, amps, and effects matter.  They make you sound good.  But they don’t matter nearly as much as what you play.
• Electric: Playing slide is a very nice texture to add to your toolbox.
• Drums: There’s a whole world of creativity outside of the high hat and snare.  They certainly are your staples, but don’t be afraid to leave them for even a few measures at a time.
• Drums and Bass: More often the rule, not the exception: the kick drum and bass match rhythmically.  This is one of those things that is hard for the listener to pinpoint, but is what makes “a band sound tight” (almost all of the songs, but “The Lord is My Rock” is perhaps the best example).
• Drums: Think in more than one measure at a time.
• Bass: The difference between your two lowest octaves is ginormous (“The Highest”).
• Bass: Simple is good, but good technique added onto simple is even better.
• Rhythm guitar: Rhythm guitar is often more a percussion instrument than it is a tonal instrument.  Strum patterns matter a lot.
• Rhythm guitar: Don’t strum through everything like you might want to.  This usually includes  quiet passages.
• Rhythm guitar:  Learn how to mix alternate picking into your strumming patterns.  This gives a lot of texture to rhythm guitar (“The Highest”).
• Rhythm guitar: Complicated (like double) strums clutter the band mix and mess with tempo, but are okay when execution is good and there’s not a lot going on (intro double strum vs. interludes normal strum on “You Reign Alone”).
• Keys: Don’t be afraid to change sounds within a song, especially between pads and synth lead sounds (“The Lord is My Rock”).
• Keys: Playing only one hand is sometimes a very good thing.  Emptying the bottom by not playing the left hand on certain passages gives band breathing space.
• Keys: The less busy between chords the better, usually (best example is “The Highest”).
• Keys and electric: Working out your roles with registers is key to keep in mind.  This usually means stay in different registers, although with lead lines this might not be the case (“Exalted One”).
• Vocals: Posture and microphone placement are key for vocals to sound strong.
• Vocals: A good vocalist makes a band.  Practice even if you’ve sung the song a thousand times.
• Vocals: Sing dynamically.  Sing emotionally.  Sing with conviction.
• Whole Band:  Know when not to play.
• Whole Band: Learn how to build volume without affecting tempo, pitch, or quality of sound.  Learn how to build over the course of an entire song, just over the course of one measure, and everything in between.
• Whole Band:  Know what others are playing.  Know how the other instruments sound and what they are capable of, so as to know how to better complement them with your instrument.
• Whole Band:  Play your instrument expressively: foot-tapping, head-nodding, leg-shaking, back-bending, instrument-tilting, eye contact.  This looks different for the different instruments, but is especially helpful for others in the band to read tempo, builds, and cues.  This is the form of communication in a band.

That’s just a start.  Don’t take my word completely for these things.  See some of these things for yourself.  Watch the other instruments more than you watch your own.  Take some time to watch these tutorials and take a thing or two away!

Why We Sing the Obvious

If you were to look at any of the lyrics of the songs my church and fellowship group sing in a given meeting, you wouldn’t be too surprised.  A lot of hymns, a few modern hymns, some contemporary songs, and some originals for good measure.  Good lyrics.  Good, solid, plain-and-simple truth.  It’s really obvious stuff, if you think about it.  The gospel.  God’s power.  Security in salvation.  God’s sovereignty.  God’s goodness.  God’s grace.  We sing really obvious things.

Should this be next to the CCLI# on the bottom of every slide?

But why do we sing such obvious truths?

The answer is simple.  It’s the same reason we read the Bible.  It’s the same reason we pray.  It’s the same reason we are involved in discipleship.  It’s the same reason we go to church.  It’s the same reason why we do so many things in the Christian life on a regular basis.

We sing the obvious because we need to.  Follow my logic here for a minute:

We are weak.  We are hardwired to be dependent.  God’s designed our Christian lives in a way that is dependent on Him for grace, forgiveness, perspective, and even the very faith that we have in Him.  In John 15:5, Christ says:

⁵ I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

Apart from Him we can do NOTHING.  And in 1 Corinthians 4:7, Paul writes in the context of ministry:

⁷ For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?

And a quotable, familiar passage for touché status.  Ephesians 2:

⁸ For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,⁹ not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Vividly clear, in these passages and many others.  We bring nothing.  We are necessarily dependent.  We are sheep who need a shepherd.  Constantly.  Left to our own devices, we would be hopelessly lost and unable to even set our minds on truth.  Thankfully, the Lord has given us things to aid us in our otherwise-doomed pursuit of Him, including the aforementioned (the Bible, prayer, discipleship, church).  Included in these things, He’s given us to aid us is corporate worship gatherings.

Corporate worship is a multi-faceted monster.  The good kind of monster.  We’ll explore more about the role of corporate worship in future posts.  But for now, the general purpose of this time.  Corporate worship, most importantly, serves as a time for God’s people to gather locally to join in worshiping God publicly, outwardly, and directly.  Everything in the corporate worship service in terms of structure, content, or attitude should worship and glorify God alone.  Importance #1.  Clear.  But God’s designed the corporate worship service to also serve His people, as a checkpoint of sorts.  Every 7 days, He gathers His sheep into the local corrals to be challenged, inspected, and refreshed.  If we look at it from the angle of our weakness as sheep (as we have above), this refreshment is particularly significant.  We need it.  This refreshment and reminding is key to staying the course in the Christian life.  Being weak and fragile individuals in the craze of the world 6 days at a time means that in some way our hearts need to be reminded of basic Gospel truth to bolster our confidence in Christ alone.  But where does singing come in, you ask?  It may be a disappointment to you that thus far what we’ve logic-ed our way through has had little to do with singing or music.  So why do we sing the obvious?  Here it is: singing is only one of many ways we remind ourselves of and refresh ourselves with the obvious truth we need to live the Christian life.  We don’t need possibly-over-our-heads theologizing in our songs as much as we need rock-solid Gospel truth.  We sheep need grass and water on the regular, and not much else.

End logic-following.

We sing the obvious because we need to.  We need to sing the obvious because our weak hearts need constant refreshment and reminder of the Gospel and its hand-in-glove truths.  Thus, we must be weary as worship leaders and musicians to always sing and lead worship music that is Gospel-and-its-hand-in-glove-truths to the core.  The point of working through the logic of all of this?  We not only need to sing the obvious, we need to be thankful that we need to and get to sing the obvious!  A thankful act of worship in and of itself!

By way of introduction

This is going to be fun.  This is going to be a blog.  About worship, worship music, corporate worship, and such.

For the past few months, I’ve been trying to convince my good friend Ed that he should start blogging (again).  I blog.  I like it, a lot.  So you should too.  Ha.  His “excuse” was always that he had to think of the right blogosphere niche to fit into to make it worth it.  Specific enough to maintain a consistent audience, but a topic where you don’t run out of things to say too easily.

Okay, easy.  Write about music, Ed, write about music.

Ed studied music in college.  He plays piano and other random things too.  Ed and I serve on our fellowship’s worship team together (over three years now!).  But most importantly, and what ends up being the main reason for this blog: Ed and I both share a deep interest in how biblical worship and music fit together.

There’s a lot of worship music out there nowadays.  There’s also a  lot out there about worship music.  Our goal with this blog isn’t to critique the current hit songs or create revolutionary thinking on worship issues.  Instead, we hope to bring an understanding of worship and music through the Bible, our experiences, and our thoughts.  We hope to sharpen and mature our own perspectives of worship and music more than anything else, and be able to share along the way with anyone who reads.

If there’s any one overarching thesis-kinda-thing to our posts here, it’s this: because God is deserving of the most excellent musical worship we can offer, this requires that we are excellent in our part in worship music: the music itself, the lyrics, the heart, attitude, leading, the sound, and everything else in between.

Ed will probably be bringing much more in the way of music theory and its connection to worship music, the role of keys in worship, lyrics, playing in a band context, and things related to an overall approach to worship music.  If nothing else, I’m excited to learn from his posts!  I hope to contribute with posts on guitar, guitar gear, mixing/sound, leading a band, song choice, and leading a congregation.  Y’all can suggest topics too, please!

Anyways, I’m excited.  Here we go!

-Matt